While the Harry Palmer films from 1965 to 1967 (Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin, and Billion Dollar Brain) saw cockney Everyman Michael Caine nail the part of Palmer, who was the slum-dwelling, bespectacled antithesis to Sean Connerys martini-sipping sybarite. Elleston Trevor (pictured) himself was a prolific, award-winning writer, producing novels under a range of pen names nine in total! Soon after his amorous encounter with Inge, Quiller is drugged on the street by a crafty hypodermic-wielding operative and wakes up in a seedy basement full of stern-looking Nazis in business attire. They are not just sympathisers though. Audiobook. Lindt (Berger) is a school teacher who meets Quiller to translate for him. , . I enjoyed this novel just as much (if not more) as the previous books that I have read, and I will certainly be purchasing any further Quiller novels that I come across in my exploration of second-hand bookshops. In the West Berlin of the 1960s, two British agents are killed by a Nazi group, prompting British Intelligence to dispatch agent Quiller to investigate. Twist piles upon twist , as a British agent becomes involved in a fiendishly complicated operation to get a dangerous ringleader and his menacing hoodlums . Slow-moving Cold War era thriller in the mode of "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," "The Quiller Memorandum" lacks thrills and fails to match the quality of that Richard Burton classic. Alec Guinness is excellent as a spy chief, and he gives a faint whiff of verisimilitude to this hopeless film. Quiller wakes up beside Berlin's Spree River. It relies on a straight narrative storyline, simple but holding, literate dialog and well-drawn characters. The British Secret Service sends agent Quiller to investigate. Very eerie film score, I believe John Barry did it but, I'm not sure. And considering how terrible its one fight scene is, it's certainly a blessing that it doesn't have any more. The love interest between Quiller and Inge (Senta Berger) developed with no foundation. Set in 1950s Finland, during the Cold War, the books tell the story of a young police woman and budding detective who cuts against the grain when, John Fullertons powerful 1996 debut The Monkey House was set in war-torn Sarajevo and was right in the moment. The story is ludicrous. When their backs against the wall, its him they turn to. Quiller investigates, but hes being followed and has been since the moment he entered Berlin. This is the first in the series, and it seems to have a reputation for being a little different from what would become the typical Quiller novel. Be the first to contribute. Instead, the screenplay posits a more sinister threat: the nascent re-Nazification of German youths, facilitated by an underground coven of Nazi sympathizing grade-school teachers. Quiller (played by George Segal) is an American secret agent assigned to work with British MI6 chief Pol (Alec Guinness) in West Berlin. A much better example of a spy novel-to-film adaptation would be Our Man in Havana, also starring Alec Guinness. Read more A satisfyingly cynical spy thriller with George Segal, Alec Guinness and Max Von Sydow; and a script by Harold Pinter, Decent and interesting spy thriller with great cast and impressive musical score by John Barry in his usual style. What will Quiller do? The first thing to say about this film is that the screenplay is so terrible. The Quiller Memorandum subtitles. (What with wanting to go to sleep and wanting to scream at the same time, this film does pose certain conflict problems.) Quiller would have also competed with the deluge of popular spy spoofs and their misfit mock-heroes: namely, Dean Martins drinking-and-driving playboy agent Matt Helm (The Silencers, Wrecking Crew) and James Coburns parody of Bondian suavity, Derek Flint, in the trippy spy fantasias Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967). They wereso popularthat in 1966 a film was made the title waschanged to The Quiller Memorandum and from then on all future copies of the book were published under this title, rather than the original. Blu-ray, color, 105 min., 1966. This film has special meaning for me as I was living in Berlin during the filming and, subsequent screening in the city. The protagonist, Quiller, is not a superhuman, like the James Bond types, nor does he have a satchel full of fancy electronic tricks up his sleeve. Segal plays Quiller with a laconic but likeable detachment, underlining the loneliness and lack of relaxation of the agent, who can- not even count on support from his own side. But how could she put up with the love scenes with the atrocious Segal? But for today's audiences, those films are a bit old fashioned and not always very easy to follow, too much complicated. American agent Quiller (George Segal) arrives in Berlin and meets with his British handler Pol (Alec Guinness). I had to resist the temptation to fast forward on several occasions. The Quiller Memorandum Reviews. This is an espionage series that started in the '60's and ran through the '90's. Conveniently for Quiller, shes also the only teacher there whos single and looks like a Bond girl. Really sad. His Oktober does, however, serve as a one-man master class in hyperironic cordiality: Ah, Quiller! Quiller tells Inge that they got most, but clearly not all, of the neo-Nazis. One of the first grown-up movies I was allowed to go see by myself as an impressionable adolescent (yes, this was some years ago now) was the Quiller Memorandum, with George Segal. He calls Inge and arranges to meet.
The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall - Goodreads In typically British mordant fashion, George Sanders and a fellow staffer in Britain are lunching in London on pheasant, more concerned with the quality of their repast than with the loss of their man in the field! George Segal provides us with a lead character who is somewhat quirky in his demeanor, yet nonetheless effective in his role as an agent. When they find, Quiller gives the phone number of his base to Inge and investigates the place. He quickly becomes involved with numerous people of suspicious motives and backgrounds, including Inge (Senta Berger), a teacher at a school where a former Nazi war criminal committed suicide. Journeyman director Michael Andersons The Quiller Memorandum, which was as defiantly anti-Bond as you could get in 1966, has just been rescued from DVD mediocrity by the retro connoisseurs at Twilight Time and given a twenty-first-century Blu-ray upgrade. Quiller confronts a man who seems to be following him, revealing that he (Quiller) speaks German fluently. In fact, Segal as Quiller can often feel like a case of simple miscasting, although not as egregious a lapse in judgment as, say, Segals choice to play a Times Square smackhead in 1971s Born to Win.
The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall | Goodreads This was evidently the first of a very long series featuring the spy Quiller.
The Quiller Memorandum (1966) - Turner Classic Movies Special guests Sanders and Helpmann bring their special brand of haughty authority to their roles as members of British Intelligence. The film magnificently utilizes West German locations to bring the story to life. Quiller captures the contrast between the new and the seedy in the West Berlin of the 60s and how Germany remains haunted by the sins of its recent past. While the rest of the cast (Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow and George Sanders) are good and Harold Pinter tries hard to turn a very internal story into the visual medium, George Segal is totally miscast as Quiller.
The Quiller Memorandum Cineaste Magazine Quiller Memorandum, The - DVD Talk He also works alone and without contacts. Write by: I recently found and purchased all 19 of the series in hardback and read them serially. Don't bother watching it, except to see the many scenes shot on location in West Berlin at that time, with its deserted streets and subdued mood. (UK title). The former was a bracingly pessimistic Cold War alternative to freewheeling Bondian optimism that featured burnout boozer actor Richard Burton in an all-too-convincing performance as burnout boozer spy Alec Leamus. Finally, he is placed in the no-win position of either choosing to aid von Sydow or allowing Berger to be murdered. My take was, he knows she's one of the bad guys, and same with the headmistress who he passes on the way out. As classic as it gets. He notices the concierge is seated where he can see anyone leaving. Weary, Quiller only accepts the assignment on the assumption that he can fulfill a self-made promise revenge for a friend. Max von Sydow plays the Nazi chief quietly but with high camp menace. Quiller avoids answering Oktober's questions about Quiller's agency, until a doctor injects him with a truth serum, after which he reveals a few minor clues. This isachievedviaQuillers first person perspective. At a key breakfast meeting, Pol uses two blueberry muffins to outline the particularly precarious cat-and-mouse game Quiller must play while in the gap between his own side and the fascist gang. Read our extensive list of rules for more information on other types of posts like fan-art and self-promotion, or message the moderators if you have any questions. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. One of the most interesting elements of the novel is Quiller's explanation of tradecraft and the way he narrates his way through receiving signals from his Control via coded stock market reports on the radio, and a seemingly endless string of people following him around Berlin as he goes about his mission. The Quiller Memorandum, British-American spy film, released in 1966, that was especially noted for the deliberately paced but engrossing script by playwright Harold Pinter. He is shot dead by an unseen gunman. It out the quiller? Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor certainly produces the unexpected. As such, it was deemed to be in the mode of The Ipcress File (1965) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
Quiller Memorandum, The (Blu-ray Review) - The Digital Bits The Quiller Memorandum (1966) - Trivia - IMDb How did I miss this film until just recently? I read it in two evenings. Quilleris a code name. Visually, the film was rather stunning, but the magical soft focus that appears every time Inga is in the frame is silly. Cue the imposing Max Von Sydow as Nazi head honcho Oktober, whose Swedish accent is inflected with an Elmer Fudd-like speech impedimentthus achieving something like a serviceable German accent. I recall being duly impressed by the menacing atmospherics, if much of it went over my head.
The Quiller Memorandum - Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings - TV Guide movies. They say 'what a pity' with droll indifference as they eat their roast pheasant and take note of which operatives have been killed this week. Try as he might though, he can't quite carry the lead here, lacking as he does the magnetism of Connery or the cynicism of Caine. Quiller had the misfortune to hit cinemas hot on the heels of two first-rate examples of Bond backlash: Martin Ritts gritty The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the first (and easily best) entry in the acclaimed Harry Palmer trilogy, The Ipcress File, both released in 1965. I read the whole Quiller series when I was younger, and loved it. The plot holes are many. The Berlin Memorandum, or The Quiller Memorandum as it is also known, is the first book in the twenty book Quiller series, written by Elleston Trevor under the pen name of Adam Hall. "[4], The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 67% of critics have given the film a positive rating, based on 12 reviews, with an average score of 7.4/10. I'm generally pretty forgiving of film adaptations of novels, but the changes that were made just do not make sense. They are not just sympathisers though. Quiller becomes drowsy from a drug that was injected by the porter at the entrance to the hotel. Oktober demands Quiller reveal the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) base by dawn or Inge will be killed.